The random common people in our lives

According to dictionary, Random means unidentified or unknown or unimportant. But this “random”, sometimes, that we face in our lives, can impact upon us unknowingly. It can be a long time before we realize them happening in our life at one point or the other. I recollect some among the of the randomness I saw during my life so far. There are more randoms to come in the future. And by random I mean a bunch of random people I saw sometimes here and there in my hometown, or other towns or cities I have lived. As I recollect, I have here some of these random people who has affected me in some way, however small it may be but it sure had huge impacts.

The Water Man

I have been seeing this random man since my childhood days in Guwahati. I have never interacted with him. But he, without uttering one word, has done something incredible in me. Every day while I waited for the rickety school bus at the bus stop, I saw this little man of short stature with huge moustache, carrying two buckets of water held on his shoulders through a stick and ropes connected to the buckets. He delivers water to the different shops, hotels, street bhandars, momo house, etc. in my locality. With only two small buckets he used to walk multiple times to and from the source of water to his delivery points. Such sheer hard work that I witnessed of him in my school time shattered me in pieces. I understood that in front of him, I was nothing. He has got the guts to live the hard way. I have admired his will for all these years. And he continues to deliver water to these destinations. After so much time of around 18 years he finally has now managed to have a cart with a drum of about 100-200 litres and he goes on doing his job starting from early morning.

The poor parents, the kid and an infant

This mother is one of the strongest among the women I have seen. She does a decent business of selling pan, tobacco and toffees in a small road side stall in Guwahati. She is a mother, whose has raised two kids, one being an infant, on the roads. She sells items in her small rack shop for most part of the day, sometimes her husband also participates in the shop. And these two kids being grown on the streets, have become tougher through time, nothing affects them. Dust, dirt, rain, nothing. They play on the footpath and eat on the footpath. A big salute this mom who has willed to take responsibility to work along her husband and also taking care for two kids even in such unfavourable and drastic environments she faces daily. She shows that indeed women are mentally very strong, supporting her family emotionally as well as financially. Mental strength can cross all barriers of physical hurdles.

The Two young brothers selling Assamese pithas on the road

These two brothers run a shop selling “bhapot diya pitha” or steam cooked rice pancakes. The use a kettle to provide the necessary heat to cook these delicious food of Assamese people. And yes they are served along with hot tea!! They are located in a Guwahati area full of government offices, business centres & random shops. People working in these establishments flock into their shop to have the pithas. Additionally, people who have work in these offices, never forget to have their best item before leaving the premises. They start from morning 5 am till the fag end of the evening. One washes the dishes, boils the water while other prepares the pithas and teas. They stay the whole day atop a raised pavement on a small rivulet under the hot scorching sun. For them this heat of the sun is just a prick on their skin. They don’t care the heat as they are engaged in selling the best of the best pithas to all the hungry customers. I don’t know if they have undergone preliminary or higher education or not at all, but these factors have not stopped them from doing what they can, to strive a life, they deserve to live. 

The boiled Anda Bhoorji Vendor

I saw this guy when I was posted as a site engineer in the town of Bharuch, Gujarat around 2013. After returning from industrial site located around 1 hour of highway journey from Bharuch, I sometimes would get out of the site vehicle to do a mobile recharge and have tea. I would stop by his Egg house, a small cart with a big table top to cook his delicious egg items. I had one item the most common, I asked him the name of this item, and he would tell me that it is “boiled bhurjee fry”. I would order a double boiled anda bhurjee. This particular dish he prepared by splicing boiled eggs in small long slender fragments with a shredding spoon. The he would put two rounds of oil from a small hemispherical shaped spoons in his big diameter fry pan, mix masala, onion, chilly etc. and also pour some water dripped from salad to give a colour to it. He is a simple man and can do just the best food to make our mouths watery. I would voraciously eat his dishes after coming from a hard day work. He helped me unknowingly, shed all the anxieties of the day and go relaxed to my room. I never asked his name nor interacted him about anything other than ordering food and still he made go away all the tiredness form me just by serving me his special item.

The old lady selling pan by the bank

I have been seen this very old lady in her seventies-eighties in Dibrugarh, Assam. She daily sits in a makeshift thatched roof with walls of posters and somehow manageable base to sit upon. A small table of one and a half feet long is all her business property. People from the nearby bank come from their cabins to chew pan or have tobacco, bank customers park their vehicles or cycles and have something from her before entering or exiting the bank. As I don’t eat pan or tobacco I don’t buy anything from her but daily as I return from the university to my hostel I never forget to look at her shop. I feel very privileged to see such a small woman in her grey hair days’ work and not losing her dignity. She still has got the guts to earn her own food without begging in the streets which many old poor people are forced to do. After months she has managed cane & bamboo walls for her shop.  She has shown that old age is not a factor, people if they have will, can work at any age.

The mid aged lady serving momos

She works in a fast food shop in outskirts of Dibrugarh. It seems that hard work has made her look much older than her age. She is very short in height, has a face of kindness and does her job of waiting table very best. She brings me and my friend’s momos and we happily eat them. I having a more appetite for food, order an extra plate of momos and she gladly serves me more. She even gives extra soup if needed. When I see her face, I see the tranquillity in her. The relaxed yet sincerity towards her job. I don’t know if she is poor or has a family but one thing I know; she is one of the best professionals I have seen people who serve food to people without any hesitation or inhospitality. She may not understand the meaning of professionalism but it doesn’t make her unprofessional because she is unknowingly doing what she does best. And I am ready to eat momos in the shop where she serves even after years if I get a chance.

We complain about the excesses of the Upper Middle class or High Class Society, at our inability to buy expensive things like them. But, these random people I saw are probably among the happiest of all. They may be poor trying to meet ends meet but are far happier than any middle class family. They have almost nothing to lose, they have survived through all odds and will continue to survive. 

But these marginal persons inspire people like us, the lower middle class, to see that we have far better lives than them and yet we are far less happy than them. They work the hardest. We can get inspiration from them to make our lives worthier for the place we live in.

Photo credits: Pexels